Discuss the research methods used to study child development
What will be an ideal response?
We study child development in a scientific manner. The goals of studying child
development are (1) description, (2) prediction, (3) control, and (4) explanation. From
observation, researchers may generate theories about why development might occur in
certain ways. Hypotheses may be generated that are specific testable predictions that
can then be used to formulate experiments and conduct research. Children may be
studied using naturalistic observation. You might, for example, watch children at a
daycare center and document gender differences in amount and type of aggressive
behaviors. Experiments may be conducted if ethical and not harmful to children.
Children may be randomly assigned to groups and comparisons made. Let's say you
have the hypothesis that giving rewards for good behavior will increase those
behaviors. You randomly assign 10 children to a "reward" group (the experimental
group) and 10 to a "non-reward" group (the control group). You complete the first
phase of the study by comparing the number of positive behaviors elicited by each child
(this establishes that your groups are comparable in the number of positive behaviors
elicited). During the second phase of the study, you reward the positive behaviors of
the children in the reward group and not in the control group. During the third phase of
the study, you count the number of positive behaviors elicited by the children in each
group and then make comparisons. If the children in the reward group are engaging in
more positive behaviors than those in the control group, you might conclude that this is
due to the presence of the reward in one group and the absence of reward in the other
group. Aside from experiments, other methods of doing research include the case
study, in which one particular individual is studied intensively over time. Groups of
individuals may be studied at one point in time, such as in a cross-sectional study, or
data may be gathered across years, such as in a longitudinal study.
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